The U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,964-Phillips, issued on May 28, 1968, shows a textured groove pattern surface on which a sheet of paper is placed, and drawings of lines, curves, etc., can be made, using a writing tool by pressing on the paper so that the writing tool writing end enters into and as moved passes along a line defined by the textured groove pattern surface pattern to draw a line, whether straight or curved in any manner, the line then appearing on the paper in accordance with the pattern of textured grooves or lines formed on the textured groove pattern surface. The above-noted pending patent application shows and claims some changes which are improvements to the arrangement disclosed in the Phillips patent.
For the purposes of description in this document, the terms “sketch” and “drawing” are considered to be any marking made by a sketcher or draftsman or some other person on a paper sheet using any textured groove pattern, and do not preclude other markings also made on the paper sheet using a different manner of drawing or sketching. There is a deficiency of the Phillips patent in that after the top of the textured paper on which some but not all of a sketch or drawing has been made and the paper sheet is then removed from that textured groove pattern surface, and thereafter there is an attempt made to replace the paper sheet over the textured surface, it cannot be conveniently or easily relocated precisely to the position it was in when earlier drawings had been made over it. Returning the paper sheet to that position cannot be done without considerable difficulty, if it can even be done satisfactorily at all, because there are no accurate guides available for that purpose. There is also an inherent problem with the structure shown in the Phillips patent when someone who needs to draw angled lines angled at any degree of angle other than those permitted by the textured groove pattern that is under the paper sheet. It can be attempted after having removed the paper sheet from the textured pattern below it. Once that has been done, however, there is no assured precise re-registration capability shown or suggested by Phillips once the desired angled lines are earlier drawn, and the person doing the drawing desires to return the paper to its precise original registration to either add to the drawing or to rework the drawing at a later time and keep the additions or rework in proper registration relative to the textured groove pattern that was earlier used for drawing on the paper sheet.